[credit_guy]

Does Germany have a Supreme Court or maybe a Constitutional Court? It feels to me you need a strong independent judicial branch to act as a check against the tyranny of the majority. You know there was that episode a while ago when a majority of the German electorate was quite happy to expropriate a certain minority, how did that work out?

[j-pb]

This is just like any infrastructure project where the government can force you to _sell_ resources of national interest, for adequate compensation.

Just like land can be aquired this way to build a highway.

And just like whole towns have been expropriated for surface coal mines.

It feels like liberians only take offence in expropriation when it affects companies for the benefit of the people, but never vice versa (see https://www1.wdr.de/nachrichten/landespolitik/braunkohle-rwe...)

And please, spare us Godwin's law.

[credit_guy]

You are presenting a false equivalence. Eminent domain is not expropriation. The law stipulates fair compensation, as you pointed out. In the US at least, that law is not some obscure regulation, it's the Constitution, in the 5h Amendment, and it carries enormous weight.

Maybe Germany has a similar postulate in its Constitution, maybe not. Still, it feels absurd to me that the voters feel it's ok to decide to carry a vote to expropriate some people. Maybe the article is simply misrepresenting what happened there, and maybe the "expropriation" is actually appropriation with fair compensation. But if it's simply expropriation, this is just a small step on a slippery slope.

[j-pb]

In every dictionary I've found, including wikipedia, "eminent domain" is either a synonym for, or defined in terms of, expropriation: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eminent_domain

Furthermore, let's not act like these massive publicly traded companies are people. It's not like voters are deciding to take away some grannies appartment that she rents out as her sole source of income/rent.

We're talking about the companies that have been over and over shown to defraud the granny for fees of services that they don't provide (like snow removal when there is no snow, or window cleaning when there are no windows), colluding to arbitrarily inflate housing prices, and engage in unlawful behaviour to prevent tennants from cancelling contracts.

In german law there is no fundamental right to profit at the stock exchanges. There is however a right to live in dignity. And I don't know about you, but not being scammed for the place that I live in, is a pretty dignifying thing.

[credit_guy]

> We're talking about the companies that have been over and over shown to defraud the granny for fees of services that they don't provide (like snow removal when there is no snow, or window cleaning when there are no windows), colluding to arbitrarily inflate housing prices, and engage in unlawful behaviour to prevent tennants from cancelling contracts.

The solution to some injustice is not another injustice. If these guys committed some unlawful thing, then the prosecutors should seek justice in the name of the people.

Now, for eminent domain being synonym with expropriation, I have to admit I was only familiar with the usage of the term in the US, where it most definitely is not. But, you are right, apparently in other countries, Germany included, eminent domain can mean expropriation. I'm completely dumbfounded that in countries that pride themselves as being democracies, expropriation is allowed by the law. But you live, you learn.

[j-pb]

> The solution to some injustice is not another injustice.

That statement is just absurd in this context. Your premise of this being injustice is wrong, don't engange in shitty rent seeking behaviour and you don't get expropriated, don't murder people and you won't have your right of free movement removed (or in the U.S. case you right to life...). Secondly, your falling for the paradox of tolerance (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance), being intolerant of nazism isn't a slippery slope towards nazism, just as being intolerant towards injustice isn't a slippery slope towards injustice. We're not talking about vigilante groups assasinating some CEO and their Family here, but almost litterally that:

> these guys committed some unlawful thing, then the prosecutors should seek justice in the name of the people.

Because hat's literally what's happening. Massive unethical and unlawful behaviour by these companies, and the population asks the government to step in and protect them. Be it in the form of a law or a persecutor for said law, makes little difference.

> I'm completely dumbfounded that in countries that pride themselves as being democracies, expropriation is allowed by the law.

That's rich from someone from a country with only two parties of which one just tried a coup... You still misunderstand what expropriation means in germany, you get the same compensation as you'd get from the 5th.

You seem to somehow complect democracy, which literally derives it's name from the greek words for "power" and "people" with libertarian neiliberalism, where profits are more important than people.

Fun fact, democracy is a form of government and orthogonal to the system of economy. Few democratic countries have capitalism written into their base-laws, so you could just as well have a post money star trek democracy.